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Australia Felix (1917) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on the life of her parents, Australia Felix is the first in a trilogy of novels later published as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930). The trilogy has earned praise from countless authors and critics for its startling depictions of a man's decline due to mental illness and the lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family. "In a shaft on the Gravel Pits, a man had been buried alive. At work in a deep wet hole, he had recklessly omitted to slab the walls of a drive; uprights and tailors yielded under the lateral pressure, and the rotten earth collapsed, bringing down the roof in its train." Into this dangerous world of mining, Richard Mahony arrives in search of fortune. As the proprietor of Digger's Emporium, his business depends on the trust of his customers, most of them rugged, hard-drinking gold miners. But the men find it hard to respect Mahony, a teetotaler whose upper-class sensibilities strike them as snobbish at best, insulting at worst. As his store slowly fails, Richard turns his attention to the young Polly Turnham, a servant at the local hotel. When they marry, Polly suggests to her husband that he abandon his business and turn to medicine instead. His practice in Ballarat is a success, allowing them to start a family and live comfortably-for a time. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry Handel Richardson Australia Felix is a classic of Australian literature reimagined for modern readers.
About the author
Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson, known by her literary name Henry Handel Richardson, was an Australian author. Ethel Florence (who liked to be known as Et, Ettie, or Etta) was the eldest daughter of Walter Lindesay Richardson MD and his wife Mary (née Bailey). She was born in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, into a rich family that later struggled financially. Throughout Richardson's childhood and youth, the family moved about Victoria. These included Chiltern, Queenscliff, Koroit, and Maldon, where Richardson's mother was a postmistress (her father died of syphilis when she was nine). The Richardsons' home in Chiltern, "Lake View," is now held by the National Trust and open to the public. Richardson left Maldon in 1883 to become a boarder at Presbyterian Ladies' College (PLC) in Melbourne, where she studied from the ages of 13 to 17. H. G. Wells appreciated the coming-of-age novel The Getting of Wisdom, which was inspired by this experience. At PLC, she began to hone her ability to blend fact and fiction convincingly, a technique she later employed to great effect in her novels.
Summary
Australia Felix (1917) is a novel by Henry Handel Richardson. Based on the life of her parents, Australia Felix is the first in a trilogy of novels later published as The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1930). The trilogy has earned praise from countless authors and critics for its startling depictions of a man’s decline due to mental illness and the lengths to which his wife must go to care for their young family. “In a shaft on the Gravel Pits, a man had been buried alive. At work in a deep wet hole, he had recklessly omitted to slab the walls of a drive; uprights and tailors yielded under the lateral pressure, and the rotten earth collapsed, bringing down the roof in its train.” Into this dangerous world of mining, Richard Mahony arrives in search of fortune. As the proprietor of Digger’s Emporium, his business depends on the trust of his customers, most of them rugged, hard-drinking gold miners. But the men find it hard to respect Mahony, a teetotaler whose upper-class sensibilities strike them as snobbish at best, insulting at worst. As his store slowly fails, Richard turns his attention to the young Polly Turnham, a servant at the local hotel. When they marry, Polly suggests to her husband that he abandon his business and turn to medicine instead. His practice in Ballarat is a success, allowing them to start a family and live comfortably—for a time. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Henry Handel Richardson Australia Felix is a classic of Australian literature reimagined for modern readers.
